Ask HN: What device do you use to read academic papers with? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What device do you use to read academic papers with?

#101

Post by victorhooi » Tue, Feb 07, 2017, 4:54 PM UTC

Nanite wrote: post #41

f_allwein wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

just realized there's also https://getremarkable.com , which looks promising. Has anybody tried it?

First shipping of product is planned for September, but not holding my breath. Will see how/if it will turn out.

I got in on the earlier pre-order and the shipping date is August. (I guess the second batch is September).

I've been in communication with the guys behind it (via email), and they seem confident of hitting their timeframe. Obviously the proof is in the pudding =).

Re: Ask HN: What device do you use to read academic papers with?

#102

Post by victorhooi » Tue, Feb 07, 2017, 4:56 PM UTC

dx034 wrote: post #39

f_allwein wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

just realized there's also https://getremarkable.com , which looks promising. Has anybody tried it?

They must spend fortunes on Facebook ads, don't think I've seen any advertiser that often. Sounds interesting, but for $420 I doubt it would pay off compared to printing (black&white anyway).

I pre-ordered one earlier - for me it's not just about costs, but also about replacing all my notebooks and pieces of paper everywhere.

If the stylus is as real-time as they claim (input latency of 55 ms) - it's basically my holy grail device - e-ink that is just like real paper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34I27KPZM6g

Device is shown with drawing on it at 0:41.

Re: Ask HN: What device do you use to read academic papers with?

#103

Post by kiliantics » Tue, Feb 07, 2017, 4:57 PM UTC

I tried using docear for a while but couldn't get into a good groove with it so I'm still stuck in ad-hoc mode with a side of zotero. Has anyone found a good workflow with docear and mind sharing? It seems like it could be pretty powerful for projects with a lot of literature reading (like a PhD...)

Re: Ask HN: What device do you use to read academic papers with?

#104

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Feb 07, 2017, 5:02 PM UTC

merraksh wrote: post #44

Sorry for nitpicking: shouldn't the question be What device do you use to read academic papers? or What device do you read academic papers with? Non-native speaker here, so my nitpicking might actually be useless.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What device do you use to read academic papers with?

#105

Post by sriram_malhar » Tue, Feb 07, 2017, 5:03 PM UTC

12" iPad Pro + Apple Pencil.

Really a game changer.

Re: Ask HN: What device do you use to read academic papers with?

#106

Post by cr0sh » Tue, Feb 07, 2017, 5:10 PM UTC

crieff wrote: post #91

Had a library of about 800 articles that I read on a laptop with a large format external monitor. Related question: doing the above had some pain points so I wrote an app to give me the ability to give files and directories human readable names. Read, annotate, and bookmark the pdf within the app. Then be able to search across the whole library on annotations and keywords which would open the pdf to the page and para…

I would find such a thing useful, if it worked on Linux. I don't even know how many academic papers (and datasheets, and other PDFs) I have - but it's a ton, and increasing all the time.

Ideally, it would be nice if the app could do a search across a drive (or NAS, or whatever) for PDFs, pull out a summary and title, and then use that for naming/search/etc. Maybe your app already does this?

To be honest - what I wish I had was a personal Google Search appliance spidering all of my data on my NAS, which was also linked to normal Google, with priority of search results given to local information.

Maybe something like that already exists - I've found open-source solutions that come close, but all for the search/spidering typically required a machine waaaay better than my desktop...

Re: Ask HN: What device do you use to read academic papers with?

#107

Post by StreakyCobra » Tue, Feb 07, 2017, 5:24 PM UTC

ropeladder wrote: post #95

StreakyCobra wrote: post #31

The device? My laptop. The setup on my laptop: - Zotero ( https://www.zotero.org/ ) A software that allows you to easily keep references to academic papers right from your browser. Available as standalone app with multiple browser extension, or directly integrated into firefox. When you are on a paper's webpage, clicking on the button extracts its information, its PDF (if available) and do a capture of the webpage an…

If you want to sync larger Zotero libraries for free between computers you can use SyncThing to sync the libraries and then let Zotero sync up the database. SyncThing isn't cloud based, so your machines have to be on at the same time, but otherwise it works great. I posted instructions on the Zotero forums a while back: https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/50191/syncing-zotero-wi...

Yes, I know this is possible, and as I mentioned in a response to a comment below:

«I thought about doing so with owncloud, then I decided that paying when I reach the syncing limit would be a nice way to encourage the project.»

Re: Ask HN: What device do you use to read academic papers with?

#108

Post by cicloid » Tue, Feb 07, 2017, 5:30 PM UTC

Off topic: I expected to see more iPad instead of laptop as a response.

Would the reason be economical, information density (more real state on a modern laptop/desktop) or something else?

Re: Ask HN: What device do you use to read academic papers with?

#109

Post by terminalcommand » Tue, Feb 07, 2017, 5:35 PM UTC

My laptop, I use SumatraPDF with bookview (Ctrl+8).

Seeing two pages side by side, like a book, even on small screens makes a huge difference for me. Also the ability to switch between documents easily (ctrl+tab and ctrl+shift+tab) is really handy, when I am researching a topic.

I haven't figured out the annotation and highlighting part yet. I just copy and paste important parts into an Emacs org-mode document and summarize the article I read.

It's also easier to remember, what I tought when I read the article at the time, if I take extensive notes.

Re: Ask HN: What device do you use to read academic papers with?

#110

Post by crieff » Tue, Feb 07, 2017, 5:39 PM UTC

cr0sh wrote: post #106

crieff wrote: post #91

Had a library of about 800 articles that I read on a laptop with a large format external monitor. Related question: doing the above had some pain points so I wrote an app to give me the ability to give files and directories human readable names. Read, annotate, and bookmark the pdf within the app. Then be able to search across the whole library on annotations and keywords which would open the pdf to the page and para…

I would find such a thing useful, if it worked on Linux. I don't even know how many academic papers (and datasheets, and other PDFs) I have - but it's a ton, and increasing all the time. Ideally, it would be nice if the app could do a search across a drive (or NAS, or whatever) for PDFs, pull out a summary and title, and then use that for naming/search/etc. Maybe your app already does this? To be honest - what I wish…

There are some applications that will do a full text search of pdfs across directories, but seem geared towards server rather than desktop, with commensurate levels of cost and complexity. Conceptually you could use image magik and lucene to make a Linux solution, but without any added features such as summary or title.

I am experimenting with a lightweight solution, but am working out which compromises are reasonable to take so that it is worthwhile but not overwhelming of the machine it runs on. Still have to give it a real test with a large number of files as well.